Pep Guardiola gives his thoughts on Fulham victory

The Blues boss seemed positive after his side's 4-0 win over Fulham in the FA Cup Fourth Round

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 26: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City during the FA Cup Fourth Round match between Manchester City and Fulham at Etihad Stadium on January 26, 2020 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola described his team as 'motivated' after defeating Championship side, Fulham 4-0 in the FA Cup Fourth Round.

Despite his side facing lower league opposition, Guardiola admitted their was no lack of motivation to perform within his camp: "Our motivation was right, we started really well. After 2-0 we missed a little bit of movement with the intention to attack, but it was not easy because they defended well."

Pep impressed with Fulham

In spite of the convincing result, the Blues' boss was still full of praise for his opponents: "After one or two minutes I knew it was going to be a tough, tough game the way they started with 5-2-1-2 [formation] and how they are incredibly aggressive up front. "

"They are a team with a lot of courage and that is why they are in the position they are in the Championship. After the red card it was a little bit different but even then they continued to play."

With a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break Guardiola was asked if his half time attention turned to Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi final clash against Manchester United, however the Spaniard stated his mind was still firmly on the task at hand:

"It was tactics, [the message at half time] how we have to make the pressure even more intense. They could make a build-up so we might have to adjust a little bit and with the ball try to attack quicker and make more runs in behind which we didn't do until 3-0."

One moment that gave City a huge advantage was the sending off of Fulham captain, Tim Ream inside the first 10 minutes, and without that Guardiola believed the game would have been a much tougher one:

"A game with 11 against 11 would have been a tough, tough game but with 10 against 11 and after one or two goals it was easy in terms of not conceding chances, they defended well."

100 up... again

The 4-0 result means the FA Cup holders have now reached a 100 goals this season for the fourth time under Guardiola, and the City boss seemed extremely pleased with the record: "We've always scored goals since we have been here even the first season but especially the second and third and this season, we have always had the ability score."

Laporte rested

One man who did miss the tie was recently recovered, Aymeric Laporte and the City boss gave an update on the defender's fitness: "He [Laporte] had some fatigue which is normal after four and five months [out injured] so we couldn't take the risk. It was such a demanding game after Sheffield after four months and not many training sessions so he only played 75 minutes."